Gear Guide for Road Tripping with Twins

April 29, 2018

The best that can be said about Road Tripping with Two Year Old Twins is that You Are Road Tripping with 2 Year Old Twins.

This is Road Tripping with Twins: Part 2 – I actually bought these things – Part One here.

Here is my list of things I already owned or acquired that ACTUALLY made traveling with twins easier. It’s my What-Would-Leah-Buy-List. And, no joke, this is literally 400lbs of stuff. I’m sure you could go minimal…. but we bought a minivan for a reason. This post contains a ton of Affiliate links to the actual gear that I bought. I bought them on my own choice and with no consideration to any affiliation- the links are to make your lives easier and to help keep the lights on at Fort Birthday.

Getting into the hotel took some heavy pushing.

The No BS List of Gear I traveled with

Number ONE: Barf Bags

The most important, can’t live without and check to make sure I have at least 2/day item is…. YGDZ Barf Bags . Sure they call them ‘Emesis Bags’ but no one knows what that is unless they are a nurse. These have are a game changer for a pukey toddler. I literally have them stashed all over our car, in every suitcase, diaper bag, etc. Whether your kid gets car sick or you run into a stomach bug. I can’t recommend these enough. Seriously. GAME CHANGER.

I’ll spare you a picture, so here’s a pic of our friend’s cute dog trying to stow away with us.

While adorable and cuddly, a retriever puppy is not generally part of my must have for road trips with toddlers list.

Number TWO: Back up Lovies, Blankies, or whatever your family calls them

Each of my twins has their own stuffed animal (Puppy and Ding-Ding ) and a special blanket (Chewy Blankie and Chicken Blankie). Plus there is one wild card combo item – it’s a stuffed animal AND a blankie. (Angel Dear Blankie, Fox) I fear few things more than the thought of my toddler screaming while we try to explain to him why he cannot have his precious transitional objects. No lie; hidden in the depths of my suitcase was a back up copy of all of them. While the lost stuffed animal alerts and adventures are heartwarming after the fact, I promise no one wants to hunt through a dumpster for a Teddy Bear. Worth it, even when the item is just getting a bath at nap time because of a vomit situation.

Princess and the Pea got nothing on me. These Double Brushed Ultra Microfiber Sheets from Where the Polka Dots Roam are the softest. Check out my Vomit Happens post to see how to make overnight accidents more manageable.

Crib Tents

I am a Crib Tent fan, in general, twins are especially prone to elope from their cribs and this can lead to serious injury and massive annoyance. Hello, viral video of twins dismantling their room overnight, you aren’t cute. You are scary. Neither of my twins are confined by a Pack n Play anymore. These cozy tents keep them safe and malaria free. With some squeezing they fit in the pack n plays. These serve a couple purposes but mostly they promote state dependent sleep – aka the boys are sleeping somewhere familiar – and they let mom and dad sleep because we aren’t worried about our kids roaming an unfamiliar place at night.

I managed to cram these crib tents back into their original packaging not once, but TWICE.

Wireless Cameras – I use the YI home wireless camera. Everywhere has wireless. Even provincial parks in remote parts of Canada. Keeping an eye on the boys let me actually relax during my alleged vacation rather than spending all night worrying. It literally took 5 min to set up each time we traveled and the only thing I needed to find was a little pin to press the reset button. I clipped a safety pin on the cord so next time I don’t have to hunt for something to stick in that tiny hole.

Being able to see if your kid is freaking out or asleep without physically checking on them made a huge difference in how much I could consider this a vacation – so let’s say like 50%.

We formerly used an oversized twin specific diaper bag to pack their gear (which is different from the gear you need FOR them). I bought eBags TLS Mother Lode Weekender Convertible (Blue Yonder) bag for this trip and it was phenomenal how organized it kept things and in so much less space – and trust me you need all that extra space. It also has hidden backpack straps – backpacks are key for twins to keep both hands…. handy.

Number FIVE: Entertainment, both Standard and ‘BAG OF EXCITEMENT’ level

Standard Entertainment for being in the car for my boys usually includes a couple books and a favorite toy or two. Bring duplicates. Your toddler will be sure to chuck the most critical item down between their door and their seat into the no-mans-land of no-one’s-arms-are-long-enough-to-reach-that-from-the-front-seat toddler gear repository.

Then I packed MOMMY’S BAG OF EXCITEMENT full of new items they had never seen before. We got at least 45 mins out of these Melissa & Doug On the Go Water Wow! reusable water paint pads – which is worth like $1000 in road trip time. The Leap Frog ‘laptops’ were a huge hit, but not in the car, they hated them in the car. And I also got the entire Daniel Tiger catalog for some screen time. During these two road trips they watched more TV than they have in their entire lives. I also hit the dollar section at Target for bits and bobs to throw at them when things got ugly. We didn’t use any of it, but we are keeping it secret for next trip.

Here’s the thing about Mommy’s Bag of Excitement – this salad spinner at the VRBO we stayed at provided more entertainment and joy than any toy we brought with us. Don’t forget to use your environment around you.

Number SIX: Emergency Provisions…. Ring Pops

Feel free to hate all you want. But when traffic on 95N slowed to a crawl and our ETA went up by TWO hours (ARRRRGGGGG) I got desperate. Desperate enough to do anything to get a pair of toddlers to stop screaming. Ring Pops seemed the safest of our options and, sugar and dye be damned, it shut them up for more than an hour. I am never traveling without these again to whip out in case of emergency. I am fairly sure I will NEVER give them to my kids otherwise, you know, to keep the mystique.

Number SEVEN: Snacks and a way to transport them

I really like this cooler bag backpack from BJ’s. Again, backpacks are key when you are chasing a pair of rogue – been in the car too long – toddlers through an unknown park in a strange town. It worked well, held enough stuff for kids and Mom and Dad to sneak some cold ones in the bottom for after the kids went to bed.

Number EIGHT: Iggy’s Seat

This is one of our ‘Iggy’s Seats’ I can’t say enough nice things about them for travel and convenience.

Seriously, don’t ask me for travel advice, everything I needed to know about traveling with a toddler I learned from Monica and her experiences traveling with her son https://www.instagram.com/iggy.baltazar.bowie/. This Munchkin BRICA GoBoost Travel Booster Seat is perfect. Light easy to deploy, handy storage spot underneath for bibs, bowls, utensils, wipes, and barf bags. A pair of them strapped to each other in a handy fashion that made them compact and easy to carry. Never underestimate the power of an item that will safely strap down your child in a variety of situations. My boys call it Iggy’s Seat since they have used it at his house.

Two of these seats strapped so completely to each other it’s as if they were made for Twin Road Trips. Obviously, if you only have one they are way smaller, but wow these seats are the tits.

So, this is really more like 15 things crammed into 8 categories but a top 10 list sounds way fancier, don’t it? There are plenty of other things that were necessary, but this is the gear I’m really glad I bought and will use again.

This is the short list – we also had the Potty Gear bag – but I feel like that deserves it’s own post, so look for it in the future. What items are in your EMERGENCY MOM travel bag? What won’t you leave the house without? Share in the comments.

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